


Be Aware of Your Surroundings

by 10MonthDay (AwwKeyboardNo)



Series: Life We Live [1]
Category: Hey Arnold!
Genre: F/M, Shortaki Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 19:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11607087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwwKeyboardNo/pseuds/10MonthDay
Summary: Shortaki Week, Day 3: Expose"Hey Helga, can I talk to you?"





	Be Aware of Your Surroundings

**Author's Note:**

> I continue to be bad at titles.
> 
> Fic also on Tumblr under 10monthsandoneday

“Hey Helga, can I talk to you?”

Helga turns to look at Gerald, and gives him a scowl. “What do you want Geraldo? I’m in the middle of my  _lunch_.” She gestures down at the rather pitiful scene in her lunchbox, wherein lies a few packets of saltines and a battered looking box of apple juice. She sighs under her breath and mumbles, “ _I hate apple juice._ ”

“Seriously Pataki, we need to have a conversation and I’m pretty sure it’s not something you’re going to want to have out in the middle of the lunchroom.”

Helga huffs dramatically and slams the box closed. “ _Fine_ , if you’re so  _desperate_ for conversation, c’mon Hairboy.”

The hallway is deserted when they get out there and Helga leans against the lockers and stares down Gerald. After a brief moment of silence between the two of them, she gestures impatiently. “Well,  _c’mon then_ , what the heck do you want?”

Gerald runs a hand through his hair and looks down the hall. “You know, you should really be more careful Helga.”

Helga glares. “About  _what_?” she snarls.

He holds up defensive hands and grins. “Hey, I’m not trying to threaten you, calm yourself. I’m just sayin’, when you go on your little Arnold rants, you should make sure you’re all by yourself.”

Helga freezes in the act of opening her mouth to berate him (for telling her to calm down, naturally). Her heart shoves its way into her throat and chokes her breath from her lungs. There is a sudden dizzy ringing in her ears and she is forced to slide to the ground or fall. Finally, she manages to spit words out, around the lump in her throat. “I--I don’t have a-any idea what you’re talking about….”

How did he know?!  _How_?!

Gerald gives her a sympathetic look, even as he laughs a little at her dramatics. “Oh, come  _on_ Helga.  _Arnold’s_ supposed to be the oblivious one, not you.”

Helga puts her face in her hands and moans pitifully. How could this be happening to her? After six years of (mostly) successful secret-keeping, and the absolute  _worst_ person (barring Arnold himself) had to be the one who found out. “How did you figure it out?” she says into her hands.

“Like I said, you need to be careful when you’re doing your little monologue things. I happened to see you in the middle of one last week.”

Helga’s mind fell back to the week before--there was only one day that week that she’d monologued in public, so Thursday had to have been the one Gerald had heard.

She whined again. He’d heard one of her more insane ones! Why did fate hate her?  _Why_?

She could recall the words in her brain without having to try.

 _‘Oh Arnold, what a jerk, what a cad, what an_ absolute  _bore. How I_ loathe  _him. Only….How I_ love  _him. His hair, his smile, his eyes, I could look at him forever….I would give anything to win that ultimate prize--his heart. But I know he will love me never…...Ohhhhh, if only I could be even simply_ friends  _with the impossible boy--just so I could be near him. I would even give up my apathy to_ his  _friend (heck, I could set Gerald up with Phoebe) for one more opportunity to kiss the lips of that Football Headed face. Anything, to show him the_ deepest depths  _of my affections, the pit of my soul, the poetry that spills from my lips--I would tear my beating heart from my chest if only I could--’_

“This is a  _nightmare_ ,” Helga wails quietly, doing her best to resist ripping her hair from her head in utter despair. “I might as well serve myself up on a silver platter for the buffet of humiliation that is no doubt coming.”

There’s a small cough and Helga looks up, past the tears that have built in her eyes. Gerald is watching her, looking rather exasperated, but also almost….sad? But, no, it can’t be that. “Helga, you--”

“You  _can’t_ tell him,” she says desperately. “You can have anything you want--the fifty bucks I’ve been saving--blackmail for the rest of our school careers--I’ll do your  _English homework until college_ , just  _don’t_.  _tell_.  _Arnold_. I  _can’t_ be exposed to him.” Sometime in the interim of this plea, she has risen up to her knees and clasped her hands together.

He blinks. Opens his mouth to speak. Closes it. Opens it again. Finally, he sighs and speaks.

“Helga, I don’t want your money, or blackmail or English homework. I’m not going to say anything--and unlike my best friend, I’m good at keeping secrets. And I’ll keep yours.”

Helga looks up and stares at him, rubbing her tears away roughly. “Why would you do that for me?”

Gerald shrugs, looking at her with nonchalance. “Who said it was for you? It just means that if and when you and my boy _do_ get together--”

“- _Excuse me_?” Helga interrupts, gaping at him. Gerald gives her a flat look and continues to speak.

“--When you and Arnold do get together, you’ll quit with the teasing of him-- _and_ me, and then you guys ride off into the sunset of elementary school dating.” He gives her a shifty look. “And then, uh, maybe you can go through with that whole setting me up with Phoebe thing.”

He wants to keep her secret? And he thinks she and Arnold could  _actually_ end up together? Was Arnold’s pet pig about to start flying through the streets? At this point she would be happy for the world to be crazy, if only so this would be true too.

Helga gives him a tentative grin. “I could probably do that. I--if Arnold and I were to ever get together that is….” She gives him her own furtive look. “Otherwise you’ll just have to wait for her to ask you….”

They grin at each other. Gerald hold out a hand and helps her up. “Deal?”

“You got yourself a deal, Geraldo.”

They shake on it.

“Uhh, what’s going on here?”

The duo turn to find Arnold giving them a strange look. Their hands immediately separate. They take a couple steps away from each other for good measure.

“Thumb wrestling contest--”

“--Helga was trying to break my hand--”

Helga gives Gerald a quick, icy look and expands on the fib. “I was beating the heck out of Geraldo in thumb wrestling here, he just can’t handle a strong grip.”

He gives her his own dirty look. “One of us can’t handle  _something_.” He coughs and leaves her side, throwing a casual arm around Arnold to lead him away from Helga. He throws up a quick wave of goodbye without turning around, even as he speaks to Arnold.

“Hey are we playing the fifth graders this weekend or what?”

“No, Wolfgang is still sick and they don’t have a pitcher to fill in--Chocolate Boy asked us to train the third graders instead.”

“They’re gonna be our  _competition_ next year, man. You are just too nice for your own good….”

Their voices fade as they leave the hall.

Helga breathes out a deep sigh of relief and slumps against the lockers. She pulls out her locket. “If Gerald keeps his word, my secret is safe, my darling.” She clutches the metal to her chest. “Oh,  _Arnold_ , I hope one day Gerald is right, and I  _do_ confess my feelings to you. My dearest, my football headed  _angel_ , I only wish I had the guts to go up to you and say, ‘Arnold, you are the reason I breathe, why the sun shines for me on a cloudy day, you--’”

“Um, Helga?”

Helga cuts herself off, still holding the locket against herself. She bites back an unhappy whimper and speaks, doing her best to keep her voice steady. “Nadine, how much of that did you hear?”

“I’m sorry Helga, but I heard the whole thing.”

Helga doesn’t look at Nadine. Instead, she looks upwards, bearing her teeth in tribulation. “Do the fates think this is  _funny_? Is this a  _game_?” But of course, there’s no answer.

And, thus, she prepares for her secret to be exposed once more.

**Author's Note:**

> How'd I do on Helga's monologue? I rather like getting in her head. 
> 
> I was happy to see how friendly Gerald and Helga were in the sneak peek. Since that meant, at least for now, this little fic of mine could be canon lol. 
> 
> (also, I make absolutely -no- promises, but I am highly tempted to do little ficlets based after this. Just Helga&Gerald shenanigans. maybe even a guess as to how Gerald came to know about her surveillance stuff...)


End file.
